My dad was very thoughtful and considerate of others, especially me. Here is a list of things he did after my mom died that made things a bit easier for me after he died that may be something you should think about doing too if you have family members you can trust:

1. Put my name on the house too using a survivorship deed.

2. Titled his car in both our names.

3. Added my name to his bank accounts--both savings and checking.

4. Kept important papers in file cabinet and let me help name the files.

5. With a marker, he put the year the furnace and water heaters were installed.

6. On his calendars, he would mark the days he made repairs and carried them forward from one year to the next.

7. He told me where he hid his money that he had in the house.

8. He preplanned and prepaid for most of his funeral expenses, including the casket, the grave marker, the vault and opening the grave. I was with him when he did this.

9, He gave me a key to his house.

10. He gave me his will as executor.

11. He saved an advertisement for me that he had in the dining room for a company that buys houses cheap "as is" and then takes care of cleaning them out and resells it. (I did call, but they never responded promptly so I gave up on them and cleaned everything out myself.)

My dad and I were very close and I would never think of stealing from him or cheating him in any way so he was able to do these things.